Podcast: Dave Barton of champ Falmouth on the Maine landscape

On this episode of the "Chasing the Goal" podcast, Falmouth (Maine) High School head coach Dave Barton joins the guys.

On this episode of New England Lacrosse Journal’s “Chasing The Goal” podcast, hosts Kyle Devitte and Owen Hart talk with Falmouth (Maine) High School coach Dave Barton.

Barton grew up in Hanover, Mass., and developed an interest in being a lacrosse goalie at a young age. He attended BC High and played four years of Division 1 lacrosse at the University of Vermont, where he was a three year starter and All-Conference goalie.

After his playing career, Barton went on to become the coach at Falmouth, where he has won multiple MPA championships and built a winning culture. Just this past season, he led the team to the Class A title.

Watch the full podcast below on YouTube. It’s also available on all major podcast platforms. If you enjoy it, please leave a rating and a review. Watch more episodes on the Chasing the Goal podcast channel.

Here are some excerpts from the pod.

Kyle Devitte: You said you’re a Mass. transplant (to Maine). Let’s go through your beginnings as a lacrosse player and how you came to be a coach.

Dave Barton: I think I started playing in second or third grade. I have a brother who’s two years older. So, for a couple of years, I was following him along to all his games. And then when it came time for me to sign up I was a goalie; it’s pretty much the only position I ever played. I think a lot of it was because the goalie got to bring home the team gear, and we had a net in our backyard. So my brother would always rip shots at me. I thought it was the coolest thing having that big pool skimmer — it was different than everyone else’s sticks.

I don’t know how many older listeners you have here that would remember the NESL days, but my travel experience was, I thought, the coolest thing. Playing in the NESL, the regional league, I was on Team South. We had the UNC colors, and then I was fortunate enough to play my whole youth through high school recruiting season for the NESL black team. My coach was Mike Herring.

Owen Hart: Getting off goalie talk, you coach lacrosse in an area that probably a lot of people don’t know about. They don’t really know a lot of the players, a lot of the teams. Just give us your breakdown of Maine lacrosse — who the players are, what the breakdown division-wise is, how the playoffs work.

Dave Barton: We have three classes now — Class A, Class B and Class C. I think Class C is in its fourth or fifth year, so for a long time there was just Class A and Class B. And, when I moved up here, you kind of learned it was a little bit backward, that some of the better teams, namely Cape Elizabeth, Yarmouth and Falmouth, were all in Class B at the time. Class A certainly has great teams, but it’s more just based on size of the school. But you can petition up. So, Cape Elizabeth is one of the smaller high schools in the state, and they’re slotted for Class C based on population. They petition all the way up to Class A.

Class C was developed maybe four or five years ago with an emphasis on new programs or co-op programs, which I thought was great. The teams that are just starting a program, they now have a legitimate chance to compete for championships, which is what high school kids want to do. And so with that, I think we’re approaching 60 teams in the state that play. And I think a lot of that is due to the fact that there is a really competitive Class C schedule out there for a lot of schools.

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